


Touch

by fragilelittleteacup



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: Angst, Childhood Sweethearts, Drabble, First Kiss, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Reminiscing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2016-11-07
Packaged: 2018-08-29 18:44:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8501122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fragilelittleteacup/pseuds/fragilelittleteacup
Summary: Nathan finds some old photos, and remembers.





	

Duke had always been there.

It’s funny how, when you’re growing alongside someone, you don’t notice how much they change until you see a photograph and realise how much you’ve both changed. And it did take a photograph to make Nathan realise.

Sometimes he got melancholy, unpacked old boxes of old photos with battered frames, revelling in the printed rectangles that were- for once- not just pixels on a screen. All this new age stuff. He somehow found it more comforting to hold an actual photograph- he couldn’t feel the shiny surface, and it was no different to holding something of any other texture, but it was just… comforting. Technology was just another way to be separate, and he _certainly_ didn’t need another way to achieve that.

He was sitting on his bed, boxes stacked around him, when he found it.

It was them- fifteen, maybe sixteen?- standing in a school photograph. Nathan laughed quietly; they’d been the tallest of the lot, but Duke had been stretched out thin, with long gangly limbs, simultaneously childlike and on the verge of maturity with his uncontrollable black curls and big, soulful eyes. His clothes had been too big for him, because the size below had been too small for his big bony shoulders and his parents had needed to buy bigger. His face, even at that age, had been long and sculptured, devoid of the plump roundness that had brightened the faces of their classmates. There had always been hints of facial hair on Duke; even at that age, he had been one of those boys who needed to shave religiously.

Nathan traced his thumb over the picture, outlining Duke’s tiny head; that long face, that strange boy who had been his dear friend, so close to him. And now…

They had looked so perfect. They had been so perfect.

The first time they’d kissed, it had been Duke’s house, and the other boy had tasted like toothpaste and white bread. His hands had been on Nathan’s chest, fingers dragging at his shirt, mouth unsure because of his youth. He leaned back and watched Nathan with concerned eyes, and found him crying.

Nathan’s eyes slid closed, and a smile spread his lips as he remembered; he had told Duke everything, right there. Told him that there was no warmth spreading into his skin from Duke’s hands or lips, nothing Nathan could feel but a barest pressure.

The next day, Duke had come to school wearing cologne. He had been bullied for it, but Nathan had known, had appreciated it. He’d kissed him hard, just because he knew Duke wanted it, because he needed to express his gratitude.

And he was immeasurably sad, to know how much had changed.

He missed those boys.

 

 

 

 


End file.
